Khronos unveils OpenGL 4.5, broadens OpenCL 2.0 language support

Monday 11th August 2014 22:14 GMT P. Lee

It's all in how you phrase it

> ...although the majority of Windows game development has moved toward DirectX, OpenGL still has advantages...

I'm not sure, "moved towards" is the right phrase. "Started out," perhaps, "historically" certainly, but game development in general (ok, its a finger in the air general impression) appears to be moving away from DirectX because Windows is no longer the only target. For many, it isn't even the main target - they are going for the mobile market instead.

Certainly in the indie market, I see lots of Linux and OSX stuff on Steam. Weirdly, sometimes Linux but no OSX and sometimes OSX but no Linux. There are some odd decisions out there. Anyway, with console being so big and lots of things being ported to multiple platforms, including mobile, *GL would seem to be the way to go. Consoles are never going to be pushing the envelope, neither is anything targeting the Mac market, so performance is rarely the limiting factor. For vendors, market reach usually trumps having a groundbreaking game. Roll on Star Citizen!

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1. Tuesday 12th August 2014 07:42 GMT Down not across
  
  Re: It's all in how you phrase it
  
  I concur. The cross platform aspect is undoubtedly the most attractive developers enabling them to "have it all" bar consoles.
  
  Making porting from DirectX to OpenGL as easy as possible is a good thing and hopefully will encourage studios in DirectX camp to at least support OpenGL if not completely switch over (like fair few used to do in the 90s and people chose which ever was better supported/faster on their hardware).
  
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Tuesday 12th August 2014 09:33 GMT mythicalduck

Why bother with OpenGL?

""With OpenGL 4.5 you can request an OpenGL ES 3.1 context, which means basically you can turn your desktop GPU into a mobile GPU. It lets you develop mobile applications knowing the graphics API you're using is identical to the graphics API you're going to find on your mobile device," Trevett explained"

Let's face it, just standardise with GLES for everything, then you don't need two lots of API to do the same thing! I mean, IIRC GL already has an API for you to test whether particular features are present.

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1. Tuesday 12th August 2014 13:40 GMT Brewster's Angle Grinder
  
  Re: Why bother with OpenGL?
  
  Read this and rejoice.
  
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Tuesday 12th August 2014 10:55 GMT IGnatius T Foobar

Microsoft FAIL

Dear Microsoft,

Welcome to the OpenGL working group. Before you are permitted to have any input towards future development of the technology, you must first axe DirectX and fully support the current version of OpenGL in all of your products. No bastardization, no microsoftization, implement it as specified. Become a supporter of this open standard. Only then will you be permitted to have any input towards future development.

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1. Tuesday 12th August 2014 15:11 GMT Tom 7
  
  Re: Microsoft FAIL
  
  Isn't OpenGL being exposed to the browser in HTML5? Just write your game for the web (firefox) and give MS apoplexy.
  
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Tuesday 12th August 2014 11:07 GMT Jagged

Silicon Graphics

Someone needs to ask Silicon Graphics what its like to have Microsoft as an OpenGL partner?

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1. Tuesday 12th August 2014 12:33 GMT DJV
  
  Re: Silicon Graphics
  
  They did try to ring them but couldn't get through as, apparently, their phone bill hasn't been paid since 2009.
  
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2. Tuesday 12th August 2014 15:16 GMT Tom 7
  
  Re: Silicon Graphics
  
  They've been in some web standards groups that seem to have slowed somewhat... ECMA script is still in the early 90's.
  
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